LAWYERS for Liverpool-born Kate and Gerry McCann have demanded a website claiming Madeleine wasn’t abducted to be taken down.

The Madeleine Foundation claims Madeleine is dead and her parents bear some responsibility for her death.

In a statement on its website, the foundation said libel specialists Carter-Ruck have also demanded they hand over all remaining copies of leaflets and booklets they published to support their claims.

Spokesman for the McCann family, Clarence Mitchell, said: “Kate and Gerry have consistently made it clear they will not dignify the actions of the so-called Madeleine Foundation with any comment whatsoever.

“However, Carter-Ruck’s position is now clear and it is in the hands of Kate and Gerry’s defamation lawyers.”

The statement on the foundation’s website said they were given until last Friday to reply to Carter-Ruck’s letters and were now taking legal advice. Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on May 3, 2007, while her parents dined with friends nearby.

Mrs McCann, a doctor who has family in Liverpool, and her husband, who is also a doctor, tapped into the huge public interest into their daughter’s disappearance and made repeated appeals for information.

They feared their daughter had been abducted and taken abroad, and set up an official findmadeleine.com website as part of their campaign to be re-united with Madeleine.